The present invention relates to a device for deactivating price tags, or labels, of the kind that incorporate a magnetic tape which is intended to form part of an anti-theft store supervising system.
It has become progressively more usual for goods in self-service stores and shops to be provided with a bar code which can be read-off at the cash desk, thereby to automatically record the price of the item of goods in question, among other things. Alternatively, there can be used a so-called upstanding or a so-called horizontal scanner which is a fixedly mounted optical device which projects the bar code and reads said code and delivers an electric signal to a computer or microprocessor, this signal corresponding to the information contained in the bar code. Scanning is effected when the cashier passes the item of goods past the scanner with the bar code facing theretowards.
It has also become more usual in recent times to provide price-tagged goods with an alarm means, by incorporating a magnetic alarm strip in the price tags, this strip being intended to coact with transmitter coils and receiver coils disposed in the proximity of the cash desk or in the proximity of an exit, such that if an item of goods is not presented for payment an alarm is given when the goods pass between the coils.
In order to prevent the triggering of an alarm by goods which have been paid for, the alarm strip on the price tag is deactivated by exposing the strip to a powerful permanent magnetic field. At present, this is effected by holding the price tag close to a fixedly mounted permanent magnet. This method necessitates the cashier first to pass the goods past the scanner with the bar code on the goods facing towards the scanner and then to move the price tag on the goods against the permanent magnet. Thus, the cashier is required to perform two different procedural steps, namely recording the item of goods by reading the bar code and deactivation of the alarm strip.